How Big Is a Bit?

bit: The word "bit" is short for "binary digit." A bit is the smallest piece of computer information.

byte: Most computers use combinations of eight bits, called bytes, to represent one character of data. For example, the word "cat" has three characters, and it would be represented by three bytes.

kilobyte (K or KB): A kilobyte is equal to 1,024 bytes. megabyte (MB) A megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes, but it is usually rounded off to one million bytes.

gigabyte (GB): A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes.

terabyte (TB): A terabyte is one trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes.

Computer memory is usually measured in megabytes or gigabytes. This tells how much information your computer can store.

The speed of a modem (a device that connects two computers over a telephone line) is measured in bits per second, or bps. This tells how much information can be sent in a second.

Computer Virus Timeline

Computers and the Internet

Computer Virus Timeline

1949: Theories for self-replicating programs are first developed.

1981: Apple Viruses 1, 2, and 3 are some of the first viruses “in the wild,” or in the public domain. Found on the Apple II operating system, the viruses spread through Texas A&M via pirated computer games.

1983: Fred Cohen, while working on his dissertation, formally defines a computer virus as “a computer program that can affect other computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include a (possibly evolved) copy of itself.”

1986: Two programmers named Basit and Amjad replace the executable code in the boot sector of a floppy disk with their own code designed to infect each 360kb floppy accessed on any drive. Infected floppies had “© Brain” for a volume label.

1987: The Lehigh virus, one of the first file viruses, infects command.com files.

1988: One of the most common viruses, Jerusalem, is unleashed. Activated every Friday the 13th, the virus affects both .exe and .com files and deletes any programs run on that day.; MacMag and the Scores virus cause the first major Macintosh outbreaks.

1990: Symantec launches Norton AntiVirus, one of the first antivirus programs developed by a large company.

1991: Tequila is the first widespread polymorphic virus found in the wild. Polymorphic viruses make detection difficult for virus scanners by changing their appearance with each new infection.

1992: 1300 viruses are in existence, an increase of 420% from December of 1990.; The Dark Avenger Mutation Engine (DAME) is created. It is a toolkit that turns ordinary viruses into polymorphic viruses. The Virus Creation Laboratory (VCL) is also made available. It is the first actual virus creation kit.

1994: Good Times email hoax tears through the computer community. The hoax warns of a malicious virus that will erase an entire hard drive just by opening an email with the subject line “Good Times.” Though disproved, the hoax resurfaces every six to twelve months.

1995: Word Concept becomes one of the most prevalent viruses in the mid-1990s. It is spread through Microsoft Word documents.

1996: Baza, Laroux (a macro virus), and Staog viruses are the first to infect Windows95 files, Excel, and Linux respectively.

1998: Currently harmless and yet to be found in the wild, StrangeBrew is the first virus to infect Java files. The virus modifies CLASS files to contain a copy of itself within the middle of the file's code and to begin execution from the virus section.; The Chernobyl virus spreads quickly via .exe files. As the notoriety attached to its name would suggest, the virus is quite destructive, attacking not only files but also a certain chip within infected computers.; Two California teenagers infiltrate and take control of more than 500 military, government, and private sector computer systems.

1999: The Melissa virus, W97M/Melissa, executes a macro in a document attached to an email, which forwards the document to 50 people in the user's Outlook address book. The virus also infects other Word documents and subsequently mails them out as attachments. Melissa spread faster than any previous virus, infecting an estimated 1 million PCs.; Bubble Boy is the first worm that does not depend on the recipient opening an attachment in order for infection to occur. As soon as the user opens the email, Bubble Boy sets to work.; Tristate is the first multi-program macro virus; it infects Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

2000: The Love Bug, also known as the ILOVEYOU virus, sends itself out via Outlook, much like Melissa. The virus comes as a VBS attachment and deletes files, including MP3, MP2, and .JPG. It also sends usernames and passwords to the virus's author.; W97M.Resume.A, a new variation of the Melissa virus, is determined to be in the wild. The “resume” virus acts much like Melissa, using a Word macro to infect Outlook and spread itself.; The “Stages” virus, disguised as a joke email about the stages of life, spreads across the Internet. Unlike most previous viruses, Stages is hidden in an attachment with a false “.txt” extension, making it easier to lure recipients into opening it. Until now, it has generally been safe to assume that text files are safe.; “Distributed denial-of-service” attacks by hackers knock Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, and other high profile web sites offline for several hours.

2001: Shortly after the September 11th attacks, the Nimda virus infects hundreds of thousands of computers in the world. The virus is one of the most sophisticated to date with as many as five different methods of replicating and infecting systems. The “Anna Kournikova” virus, which mails itself to persons listed in the victim's Microsoft Outlook address book, worries analysts who believe the relatively harmless virus was written with a “tool kit” that would allow even the most inexperienced programmers to create viruses. Worms increase in prevalence with Sircam, CodeRed, and BadTrans creating the most problems. Sircam spreads personal documents over the Internet through email. CodeRed attacks vulnerable webpages, and was expected to eventually reroute its attack to the White House homepage. It infected approximately 359,000 hosts in the first twelve hours. BadTrans is designed to capture passwords and credit card information.

2002: Author of the Melissa virus, David L. Smith, is sentenced to 20 months in federal prison. The LFM-926 virus appears in early January, displaying the message “Loading.Flash.Movie” as it infects Shockwave Flash (.swf) files. Celebrity named viruses continue with the “Shakira,” “Britney Spears,” and “Jennifer Lopez” viruses emerging. The Klez worm, an example of the increasing trend of worms that spread through email, overwrites files (its payload fills files with zeroes), creates hidden copies of the originals, and attempts to disable common anti-virus products. The Bugbear worm also makes it first appearance in September. It is a complex worm with many methods of infecting systems.

2003: In January the relatively benign “Slammer” (Sapphire) worm becomes the fastest spreading worm to date, infecting 75,000 computers in approximately ten minutes, doubling its numbers every 8.5 seconds in its first minute of infection. The Sobig worm becomes the one of the first to join the spam community. Infected computer systems have the potential to become spam relay points and spamming techniques are used to mass-mail copies of the worm to potential victims.

2004: In January a computer worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through emails and file-sharing software faster than any previous virus or worm. MyDoom entices email recipients to open an attachment that allows hackers to access the hard drive of the infected computer. The intended goal is a “denial of service attack” on the SCO Group, a company that is suing various groups for using an open-source version of its Unix programming language. SCO offers a $250,000 reward to anyone giving information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the people who wrote the worm.; An estimated one million computers running Windows are affected by the fast-spreading Sasser computer worm in May. Victims include businesses, such as British Airways, banks, and government offices, including Britain's Coast Guard. The worm does not cause irreparable harm to computers or data, but it does slow computers and cause some to quit or reboot without explanation. The Sasser worm is different than other viruses in that users do not have to open a file attachment to be affected by it. Instead, the worm seeks out computers with a security flaw and then sabotages them. An 18-year-old German high school student confessed to creating the worm. He's suspected of releasing another version of the virus.

2005: March saw the world's first cell phone virus: Commwarrior-A. The virus probably originated in Russia, and it spread via text message. In the final analysis, Commwarrior-A only infected 60 phones, but it raised the specter of many more—and more effective—cell phone viruses.

2008: First discovered in November, the Conficker virus is thought to be the largest computer worm since Slammer of 2003. It's estimated that the worm infected somewhere between nine and 15 million server systems worldwide, including servers in the French Navy, the UK Ministry of Defense, the Norwegian Police, and other large government organizations. Since it's discovery, at least five variants of the virus have been released. Authorities think that the authors of Conficker may be releasing these variants to keep up with efforts to kill the virus.

How Do Computers Work?

Computer Basics

To accomplish a task using a computer, you need a combination of hardware, software, and input.

Hardware consists of devices, like the computer itself, the monitor, keyboard, printer, mouse and speakers. Inside your computer there are more bits of hardware, including the motherboard, where you would find the main processing chips that make up the central processing unit (CPU). The hardware processes the commands it receives from the software, and performs tasks or calculations.

Software is the name given to the programs that you install on the computer to perform certain types of activities. There is operating system software, such as the Apple OS for a Macintosh, or Windows 95 or Windows 98 for a PC. There is also application software, like the games we play or the tools we use to compose letters or do math problems.

cartoon of computer inputting its own information

You provide the input. When you type a command or click on an icon, you are telling the computer what to do. That is called input.

How They Work Together

First, you provide input when you turn on the computer. Then the system software tells the CPU to start up certain programs and to turn on some hardware devices so that they are ready for more input from you. This whole process is called booting up.

The next step happens when you choose a program you want to use. You click on the icon or enter a command to start the program. Let's use the example of an Internet browser. Once the program has started, it is ready for your instructions. You either enter an address (called a URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator), or click on an address you've saved already. In either case, the computer now knows what you want it to do. The browser software then goes out to find that address, starting up other hardware devices, such as a modem, when it needs them. If it is able to find the correct address, the browser will then tell your computer to send the information from the web page over the phone wire or cable to your computer. Eventually, you see the web site you were looking for.

diagram of computer downloading information

If you decide you want to print the page, you click on the printer icon. Again, you have provided input to tell the computer what to do. The browser software determines whether you have a printer attached to your computer, and whether it is turned on. It may remind you to turn on the printer, then send the information about the web page from your computer over the cable to the printer, where it is printed out.

The Dawn of an Electronic Era

The computer age began when ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was completed in 1945. The first multipurpose computer, ENIAC set speed records with an amazing 5,000 additions per second. Computers have come a long way since—a laptop today can do 500,000,000 additions per second.

That’s not the only difference. ENIAC weighed more than 30 tons, filled an 1,800-square-foot room and included 6,000 manual switches. It used so much electricity that it sometimes caused power shortages in its home city of Philadelphia. By contrast, a notebook PC today might weigh in at about 3 pounds.

Booting Up

You may know that “booting” your computer means starting it up. But did you know the word comes from “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”? That’s an expression that means taking charge of yourself, which is what a computer seems to do when it starts up!

Bugging Out

The term “bug” has been used for problems in machinery since electricity was invented. But the first computer bug was actually a moth! In 1945, a computer being tested at Harvard University stalled when a moth got caught inside. The engineers taped the moth into their computer log with the note, “First actual case of bug being found.”

Computer Timeline

1945: The computer age begins with the debut of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). It is the first multipurpose computer.

1975: The MITS Altair, a PC-building kit, hits stores; Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft.

1976: Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak start Apple Computer.

1977: Apple Computer introduces the Apple II computer.

1978: Floppy disks replace older data cassettes.

1981: IBM introduces a complete desktop PC

1983: TIME magazine names the PC “Man of the Year”

1984: The user-friendly Apple Macintosh goes on sale

1985: Microsoft launches Windows.

1992: The Apple PowerBook and IBM ThinkPad debut

1996: Palm releases the PalmPilot, a hand-held computer also called a “personal digital assistant.”

Google Login and Claiming Your Places Page Instructions

Here I am going to explain two separate ways to either claim or do a Google places login
The first thing before you try to claim and optimize your Google Places page is to have a Gmail account. If you do not have one set up already simply go to your browser and do a search for Google mail or you can find them at mail.google.com. This will take you to the Google log in page where you can either sign into your account or just underneath the sign in section is a section where you can Create an Account for free in about 2 minutes or less.
Creating a Gmail Account: Put in your name Choose your user name Check availability if it is available they will assign it to you if not they will give suggestions Choose a password Answer a couple of security Questions Put in a recovery email in case you forget the password. Select your country Put in you Date of Birth Fill in the Captcha and submit You may be asked to verify by phone or text select which works for you and your account is verified instantly.
Now that is done go to the Google Login page and sign in
To find and claim your places page click on the maps tab at the top of your browser if you do not see the maps tab you can do a search for "google maps" it will be the first organic listing, click on it and it will bring you to the maps search browser.
There are two ways to find out if you already have a Google places page listing. The first way is once you are in the maps search browser simply do a search of your company starting with the company name your address and zip. and click search. If you have an unclaimed listing it will show up in the left hand side bar.
If you show up in the side bar simply click on your company name and it will take you to your places page that the public sees. From here you will see you will see a map to the right with an A pin indicating your location.
Just above the map location with the A pin are two hyperlinks one says Edit this place the other say Business Owner? You should still be logged into your Gmail account so click on the business owner? hyperlink if you are not logged in you will be directed to the Google login page. If you are logged in you will be taken to a page that asks you what you would like to do.
You have 3 choices Choose Edit. Edit your listing, Suspend your listing, or This isn't my listing.
Once you choose Edit it will open a new page that will auto fill your information for you. Make any corrections and do a simple basic setup before you start to optimize your places page. I repeat just put in some basic information.
IMPORTANT: DO NOT stuff or add any additional information like city or what you do in your business name box just put it as it is on your business license. If you put wrong information in or if you accidentally break the rules or guidelines you will hurt yourself and your chances of optimizing your places page the right way to be seen on page 1 for your business will become more difficult.
The second way of finding yourself is when in the maps search browser in the left hand side bar is a link that says "put your business on Google Maps. click on this link if you are signed into your Gmail account it will take you to a page where you can put your business phone number in.
Use your local number not an 800 number preferably the number that is listed with the local phone books and other directories. Google will then search for your business, if it finds you they will give you an option to edit your page from the search results they came up with or if you do not see your listing this is where you can Add a new Listing.
Select add new listing and follow the procedures above for filling in the basic setup.
Do not get creative I can not emphasis enough on following the guidelines and best practices. Once you have done your basic setup you will want to optimize your Places page so you can start to rank better but hat is another article so until then have a great day.
I hope this Google login information helped you.

Jay Smith from Condor Marketing has been Helping clients with on page off page SEO since 2008, Authors of the Google Places Optimization Course helping clients world wide achieve their Goals with SEO and Google Places Optimization. The Google course has reached 5 countries to date. Visit us to Learn how to optimize your Google Places page

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jay_W_Smith

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6413921

Are "Free Websites" Really Free?

This is a great question. The obvious answer is yes. However, what exactly are you going to get for free? If a free website doesn't function well enough to allow you to post your important content or accept emails and hyperlinks, it really isn't worth very much.
However, there are some companies out there which offer great services for free with the hopes you will later upgrade to your own domain name and a professional account plan. This is where they will one day make a small profit. This is why their free service must be generous but still allow for the temptation to upgrade to a "Paid" account.
I've personally built several sites for the purpose of verifying the capabilities of some of these so called "free websites". I've been quite disappointed on many occasions but there have been a couple of companies that truly give you what they offer. So I guess the real question here would be... Are you looking to have your own Web Site but don't know where to begin?
Many people would love to have their own site but become intimidated when they try to build one using the free services available. It does take time and a little finesse, however, with a little coaching along it is possible for almost anyone to develop their own site.
Using many of the free web site offers found in a quick search engine query, you can easily create your own Web Site and have the basic site "Up and Running" in less than an hour. Of course, fully developing your new website will be a much longer process. However, building and enhancing your own website is a very rewarding experience. It can also be a lot of fun.
The level of features offered by many of the free hosting companies are quite extensive. I work with one particular company that allows video uploads, email links, HTML links and music capabilities via mp3 files. All these features are completely free. Some of these free websites allow links for referrals to some of your favorite sites. I now have a "Pro-Level" account but initially, I used a free hosting company for three months and I was already earning income after the first two weeks so I was more than happy to spend a few dollars of my profits to upgrade to a site that offered me unlimited options and features.

If you are looking to build a free website, feel free to contact me personally and I'd be glad to help you get started with your site for no charge and no obligation. Please feel free to contact me (Brian) at my website listed below...
If I can ever be of assistance, please feel free to Contact me, Brian V. Menard, for more information. Or visit my website at http://www.webdini.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_V_Menard

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6429903